Oct 27, 2004

If you have any interest at
all in putting together or perfecting a home theater, you
should be reading the
Home Theater Blog
(RSS). There’s
a lot of great technical advice about audio/video products and
system setup.

Recent HTB postings of note:

Acoustic panels for the home theater -
“It used to be that if you wanted acoustic paneling for your home
theater, you’d call a specialist and they would custom make them on
site. Like anything else, with time mass production will step in and
make things cheaper, but not necessarily easier for the do it your-selfer.”

Home theater subwoofer setup -
“More often than not, the number one piece of home theater gear I see setup
incorrectly is the subwoofer… The most important thing to keep in mind
is that a subwoofer … [is] only supposed to augment the bass extension
of your main channels.”

Home Theater Calibration 101 -
“…[R]est assured if you bought home theater equipment,
unpackaged it, and thought that was it, you’ve got a lot more potential
you can squeeze out of your investment.
”

I do have some minor quibbles with some of the articles - for example
the subwoofer article claims that the sub should not be set at a higher
volume than the main channels. That’s good advice, but realize that if
you’re listening to the system at low sound levels, you might find that all
of the bass disappears due to the ear’s
low sensitivity to bass
at low overall volumes. But certainly if you’re listening to the system
at THX-specified levels, the setup advice is sound.

I’ll also emphasize a passage in the absorption article:
“A word to the wise, adding absorption may not be best in all cases….”
I wholeheartedly agree. Furthermore, Cross·Spectrum Labs can
perform a reverberation-time measurement to determine if (and what kind of) absorption
may be useful to improve the acoustics in you home theater. We can
also perform audio calibration for you home theater or audio system.
Contact me
for more information.

A DIY recently installed laminate flooring. He thought it would be useful to
run audio cable while putting down the floor. He found some flat
cable, and
the rest is history.
I recently installed laminate flooring for a relative, and I wish I had thought
of doing this.

Here is an innovative use of sound monitoring: Newark, New Jersey
is deploying a sound measurement system to
monitor accidents
at a particularly dangerous intersection. The system recognizes audio cues from
screeching tires and crashes, and uses the audio to trigger
a video recording system. You civil libertarians out there should be happy
to know that the recording system is temporary, and won’t be used as a
traffic enforcement tool.

Michelin is showing off a
concept car
with an active suspension system (as well as propulsion and braking)
integrated into the wheels. I’m glad the article points out that increasing
the unsprung mass of a vehicle is not without its risks, but it’s good
to see other approaches to active suspension systems. Now we just need an
active suspention system for trains…